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She noticed Goliath had vanished from his position at the window. Then there was a sudden flash of light and an eruption of fire. Flames blasted the window in a frenzy.
Holy hell. Had a bomb gone off?
As flames whipped the window, the hatch handle began to glow. Before long, the whole door began to take on a molten hue. The heat was tremendous, she could feel it on her skin, even from where she stood several feet away. Was the entire ship about to go up in a blaze? Was she doomed no matter what?
She watched with trepidation, transfixed by the odd fire still pelting the hatch. Had Goliath and his men been torched? Who was responsible?
Without warning, the blaze suddenly died, replaced by tendrils of rising smoke. Then something rammed the door.
Boom!
Whatever it was, it was massive; the ear-splitting sound vibrated the entire ship.
Boom!
The hatch bent inward, dented once, twice. Terror seized her…
Boom!
Then an odd sensation came over her. One that was strangely somewhat familiar, and yet not. A tingling in her hands drew her gaze downward.
She gasped. Her palms shimmered, enveloped by a ghostly blue flame, though she felt no heat. No pain.
What the—?
Boom!
The metal screeched harshly, grinding and whining, hurting her ears. The burning-hot door buckled, peeling away from the frame. An object dug through the small opening. At first she mistook it for a crowbar. Then she looked closer and gasped.
Holy fuck! Is that a claw?
Stunned by the sight, she stumbled back and tripped over her pack. The gun went off as she fell, the bullet ricocheting around the room before bouncing to a halt somewhere she couldn’t see.
Sprawled on her ass, she’d barely even registered the misfire as a set of talons shoved the rest of the way through that crowing crack, bending and reeling the metal back like a Little Debbie Swill Roll. She shuddered in fear. Then the entire hatch was wrenched away as though it were as pliable as papier-mâché.
Adrenaline doused her system, making it hard to breathe. Her thoughts slogged through a thick swamp. Cemented in place by terror, all she could do was watch and wait to see what kind of monstrous thing would creep through that threshold.
Liquified metal dripped from the doorframe, sizzling on the cool floor and kicking up plumes of steam. Beyond, a shadowy figure sliced through the smoke.
Instead of a monster, Goliath came into view.
He stepped into the room, completely uninjured, ignoring the red-hot magma raining down around him.
How had he survived that fire? Where was that monster? Was it still out there? Or…could she have imagined it?
While her mind spun like a firecracker tied to a pinwheel, her body reacted to the approaching danger and she instinctively aimed her 9mm at Goliath. Her hand trembled like it never had before. She’d only ever shot at inanimate objects. Never a living thing. But he was coming toward her…reaching for her!
It didn’t even feel like she had pulled the trigger, but suddenly the gun recoiled in her grip. Goliath’s left shoulder jerked back. Sweat dripped down her temple.
He glanced at his wound, then glared down at her, his enraged eyes glowing green like some kind of demon.
As she gawked, dominated by fright, not breathing, body shuddering, he snatched the gun from her grip and held it up for her to see him crush it in his fist like it was made of soft cheese.
Every fiber of her being freaked—the—fuck—out.
A banshee-like scream ripped through her lungs as she kicked her feet along the floor, scrambling away from him as fast as her floundering limbs could carry her. She reached in her jacket for her knife, but the second she pointed it at him, she knew it was a mistake.
He moved so fast, she couldn’t track him.
